


All the Time in the World

by IneffableAlien



Series: Wait a While, Eternity - Prison Omens AU [2]
Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, Aziraphale Loves Crowley (Good Omens), Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Crowley Loves Aziraphale (Good Omens), Diary/Journal, Domestic Fluff, Feels, Fluff, Healing, Human Aziraphale (Good Omens), Human Crowley (Good Omens), Ineffable Husbands (Good Omens), M/M, Post-AU Canon, Post-Canon, Prompt Fill, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 16:14:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21941053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IneffableAlien/pseuds/IneffableAlien
Summary: A Christmas fluff one-shot following up on the lives of Azra and AJ, now that AJ has paroled out of prison to start a new life.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Series: Wait a While, Eternity - Prison Omens AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1579876
Comments: 24
Kudos: 62
Collections: Good Omens Human AUs





	All the Time in the World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TawnyOwl95](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TawnyOwl95/gifts).



> Earlier today, I received a message from user TawnyOwl95, reminding me that Azra didn't have to be alone on Christmas anymore, and I very nearly cried. Then I decided I had to write this.
> 
> "Time to Leave the Garden" is a Christmas story, so the timeline actually hasn't completed yet. But Azra and AJ are going to have all the time in the world to make up for the pain they've endured, and this little one-shot, about the coming New Year, is in joyous honor of that.
> 
> Happy Christmas indeed.

It’s amazing how much can change in a year.

Some of those things are easily understood to be beautiful by even the most casual of observer: Embarking on a new career. Telling someone you love them for the first time. The kiss that comes after that. (Most people kiss before that, don’t they? But we’re not talking about most people.)

Discovering that your estranged mother is alive and staying clean off crack and heroine.

> _~~Dear Diary~~ scratch that, I’m not a 12-year-old girl._
> 
> __
> 
> __
> 
> _I never thought I’d be the kind of guy to keep a journal, but my therapist thinks it’ll help me understand my feelings better. I don’t even know how to start one of these things, it sort of feels like you’re supposed to introduce yourself, but that’s weird because I’m the only one who’s ever going to read it._
> 
> _Hey, journal, I’m AJ, I turned thirty last month, and this year was the first year of my life._

Some of the things that can happen in a year don’t look so pretty. Finding the right medications after much terrifying trial and error; forgiving your partner after your first fight living together; maintaining appropriate boundaries with said parent and continuing to focus on your own mental health. 

But those things are profoundly beautiful, too, when viewed from the proper perspective.

Anthony James Crowley and Azra Zion Fell (yes, Zion, but please don’t tell anyone and if anyone ever asks just tell them it’s something “normal” like Zachary thank-you-very-much) are not spending Christmas alone this year.

They have no way of knowing it yet, but they will never spend a Christmas alone again.*

> _It’s Christmas Eve. The Angel’s already asleep. After I go to sleep, he will sneak in the kitchen and eat the cookies we made for Santa lol. (Somebody needs to eat them, I’m not a big eater.) It’s a dumb tradition. I love it._
> 
> __
> 
> __
> 
> _Can I call it a tradition if this is the first year we’re doing it? It feels like we’ve been together so much longer._
> 
> _He rescued me. He’d be pissed off at me for saying that. My therapist probably wouldn’t love it, either. I’m supposed to say that I’m the one doing all “the work” for me. And it’s true. But I never could have done it alone. Is that so bad to say? Is that too “codependent”? I don’t think this stuff is so black-and-white, to be honest._

It still hurts them to think about last Christmas, but they’re processing through it. December 29th will be a hard day for AJ, because he is a man who ascribes meaning to dates and never forgets them. But for that same reason, he will feel over the moon to see February 7, 2021, because one year ago on that day AJ Crowley walked into a certain Starbucks. 

But right now it’s Christmas Day in 2020, and in a small city apartment somewhere cluttered with books and art supplies, where a redhead has taken up cooking and now grows his own herbs in the kitchen—somewhere that an Alexa occasionally plays a strange blend of Mozart, bal-musette, and the best of Queen—two men sit on a secondhand couch drinking mulled wine. They are wearing ugly sweaters, and the younger of the two is delighted because he managed to snag one of those limited edition Pornhub sweaters and how cool is that, seriously. They may or may not be watching _Die Hard._ Perhaps _Lethal Weapon._ And at some point over the holiday break, most definitely _Casablanca_ and _Love Actually._

And they adore one another completely.

They are nowhere near wealthy, this reentry case manager, and his boyfriend (boyfriend! It still amazes them) who’s studying social work full-time at the local community college. But they are incredibly rich.

> _I’m in the social work program but I’m taking all gen eds to start so if I change my mind it’s all right. I’m not 100% sure what I’m doing. Angel says that nobody is ever sure, they’re all just sort of faking it, and then he starts talking about imposter syndrome and all this stuff that’s way over my little disaster gay himbo head and oh my god I’m doing it even in my own journal and that must be that stream of consciousness thing my therapist was telling me about_
> 
> __
> 
> __
> 
> _I always “joke” like I’m dumb. I know I’m not._

Imagine a retired corrections officer who might not have been very good at his job, and a former inmate who wasn’t very good at being that, either.

> _It’s just hard to not feel stupid when you’re a grownass man who doesn’t know how to do anything. Everything is different after being in jail, I don’t know how guys who were in for like forty years handle it. Even driving is scary and I learned how to drive way before I was old enough. But I just keep trying, I keep driving and going to therapy and going to school. I keep letting myself love someone who doesn’t hurt me and the crazy thing is if he does accidentally hurt my feelings because he’s only human then I feel safe talking to him about it._

Reflect that people are people, and so very human, regardless of label.

> _I keep doing things._

Maybe a young man who never should have had a firearm made a mistake. Or maybe a kid who died far too young got caught with a little weed once. And maybe, just maybe, an officer who worked in a maximum-security prison drove home drunk _many_ times before he got his shit together _but happened to never get caught._ It is what it is—but possibly the difference between a cop and a criminal may be as simple as right place and time.

> _And it gets a little bit easier every day._

It’s ineffable. 

**And there but for the grace of God go I.**

> _Anyway, thanks for listening. Merry Christmas._
> 
> __
> 
> __
> 
> _-AJ_

**Author's Note:**

> * _In 2026, when AJ Crowley is 36 years old, he will agree to do a small speaking arrangement as a favor for a friend, about his time in prison. The night of their flight out, 45-year-old Azra Fell will have to go to the ER with a kidney stone and spend the night on a painkillers drip, and he will insist that AJ go on without him “or I’ll never talk to you again.” Then, there will be a blizzard, effectively canceling AJ’s flight home, and they won’t see each other again until December 26th. So yeah, apart from 2026—they will never spend a Christmas alone again._
> 
> xx [siliconealien](http://siliconealien.tumblr.com)


End file.
